Title: Adequacy of machining features for describing machining jobs

Authors: Mehul Chitroda, Sangarappillai Sivaloganathan

Addresses: School of Engineering and Design, Brunel University, Uxbridge, Middlesex UB8 3PH, UK. ' School of Engineering and Design, Brunel University, Uxbridge, Middlesex UB8 3PH, UK

Abstract: In machining, a piece of material called the raw stock is subjected to a succession of cuts until it reaches the finished state. In feature-based machining, the cuts made are classified as machining features. Several attempts have been made by researchers to define a set of machining features. The set of features defined by ISO 10303–224 is the only independent one outside commercial CAD packages. Expert Machinist, a module in the Pro/Engineer suite defines another such set. However, their adequacy to define each product shape has not been investigated. This present paper studies the machining features (three-axis milling machining features) defined by Expert Machinist to investigate adequacy of the set for describing every product shape. A heuristic approach has been taken by studying 62 components with differing complexities. The results show that the features indeed were adequate to define this relatively small sample of components.

Keywords: machining features; feature-based design; feature mapping; feature recognition; ISO 10303–224; milling; product shapes; component complexities; machining standards.

DOI: 10.1504/IJISE.2007.011928

International Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering, 2007 Vol.2 No.2, pp.211 - 229

Published online: 01 Jan 2007 *

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